Riddler Unmasks the Truth About Bruce Wayne in New The Batman Trailer

12/12/2021 09:45 pm EST

Riddle me this: who is that under Batman's mask? The Riddler (Paul Dano) might know the answer in a new international trailer for The Batman. "I'm here to unmask the truth about this city," says the enigmatic Edward Nashton, a masked serial killer who live-streams his sadistic machinations targeting the Gotham City elite. In the final moments of the trailer, where vengeance arrives in the form of a Batman (Robert Pattinson) in year two of his costumed crime-fighting career, Nashton seemingly solves the riddle of the man behind the bat: "I've been trying to reach you, Bruce Wayne." Watch the new trailer from Warner Bros. Japan above. 

After live-action portrayals by Frank Gorshin in the 1960s Batman, Jim Carrey in 1995's Batman Forever, and Cory Michael Smith in TV's Gotham, the Riddler in The Batman is "very scary," reboot director Matt Reeves told Total Film Magazine. "This movie, I think, is probably the scariest Batman that's been done because the idea of what Batman's doing – it's scary." 

The character has "never been done in quite this way," added Reeves, saying of The Batman, "It's a detective story, it's an action movie, and it's a psychological thriller." 

As the Dark Knight detective follows a series of cryptic clues to unmask the culprit and unravel a criminal conspiracy, his crusade takes him out into the seedy underworld of the crime-infested Gotham, where he encounters Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Oswald "Oz" Cobblepot (Colin Farrell).

Like reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne, who has not yet defined what it means to be vengeance when we meet him in The Batman, the new movie acts as the beginnings of the costumed criminals who form Batman's rogue's gallery. 

"[The Batman] is the origins of a lot of our rogue's gallery characters," Reeves said during virtual DC FanDome 2020. "Selena isn't Catwoman yet, that's actually part of the journey. Oz [Cobblepot] is not yet the kingpin that he's going to become. He's the Penguin — in fact, he doesn't like being called the Penguin — and the Riddler is just emerging for the first time. So that's all incredibly exciting."

Starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/Riddler, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Colin Farrell as Oswald 'Oz' Cobblepot/Penguin, and Jeffrey Wright as Lt. James Gordon, The Batman opens in theaters on March 4. 

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